Norm Pattis, the lead defense lawyer for Fotis Dulos, 51, is suggesting that missing Connecticut woman Jennifer Dulos, 50, might have faked her disappearance in a “Gone Girl”-esque plot. A legal analyst monitoring the case says, however, that there’s a huge weakness in this theory: Authorities said there’s proof showing the defendant getting rid of evidence.
“‘Gone Girl’ is a work of fiction, in which an extremely troubled woman frames her husband for her ‘death,'” New York criminal defense lawyer and Law&Crime legal analyst Julie Rendelman told Law&Crime. “Fotis Dulos is using this fantastical story to try to undermine the people’s case and place doubt in the mind of potential future jurors and public opinion. Either way, if the allegations are true that Fotis was disposing of bloody items containing Jennifer Dulos’ DNA, that would clearly undermine any suggestion that she is setting him up.”
Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five, went missing from her home in New Canaan, Connecticut on May 24 while she was the middle of a fraught divorce from her estranged husband Fotis Dulos. She had claimed that he harbored “revenge fantasies” against people, and that she was afraid of him.
The defense and his girlfriend Michele Troconis, 44, were arrested on a count each of hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. They each pleaded not guilty and posted $500,000 bail. As Rendleman alluded to, police said that a person who appeared to be Fotis Dulos made over 30 stops in order to dispose of trash bags that indicated his wife was the victim of a violent crime. This contained clothes and other items featuring Jennifer’s blood, authorities said. Also, Fotis Dulos’s DNA was mixed with her blood in the sink of Jennifer’s home, prosecutors said.
The defense has been developing their response, asking authorities to return Fotis Dulos’ personal items so they can build a case. Pattis previously told Fox 61 there’s an alibi. They can show that Fotis Dulos was at home in Farmington, and even if they can’t account for his whereabouts after that time period, the timeline for murder would’ve been improbable, said the lawyer. He suggested that it’s unclear if it’s really Dulos in the Ford Raptor in question, since one of the defendant’s employees was seen in the vehicle for work on May 24.
Nothing new in the criminal files for Fotis Dulos or Michelle Troconis except Troconis’ attorney has filed formal requests for discovery. Both are charged w/ evidence tampering & hindering prosecution in connection to his estranged wife’s disappearance 1 month ago today @News12CT pic.twitter.com/1D5FHaM3oB
— Marissa Alter (@MarissaAlter) June 24, 2019
Pattis told The New York Post in a Saturday report that his client and Troconis have broken up.
Nothing new in the criminal files for Fotis Dulos or Michelle Troconis except Troconis’ attorney has filed formal requests for discovery. Both are charged w/ evidence tampering & hindering prosecution in connection to his estranged wife’s disappearance 1 month ago today @News12CT pic.twitter.com/1D5FHaM3oB
— Marissa Alter (@MarissaAlter) June 24, 2019
[Image via New Canaan Police Department]
